Re: gitignore: negating path patterns

Kevin Ballard venit, vidit, dixit 24.05.2008 00:44:

On May 23, 2008, at 12:52 AM, Michael J Gruber wrote:

quoted

Kevin Ballard venit, vidit, dixit 23.05.2008 02:23:

quoted

On May 21, 2008, at 7:52 AM, Michael J Gruber wrote:

quoted

Hi there

It seems that negating path patterns in gitignore doesn't work, or I
don't understand it (or both). With the attached script, git status
(1.5.5.1) reports "dir/a" as new and "dir/b" as untracked. I would
rather expect it to report "dir/c" as untracked also.

It seems that "!b" matches to include "dir/b" (reverting the  
exclusion
"*" as expected), whereas "!dir/" does not match to include "dir/c".

What's going on here?

"dir/" will not match anything, because paths are compared without   
trailing slashes. Try "!dir".

I am sorry, but this is plain wrong, at least if "man gitignore" is  
right (see below). "!dir" would match files whose name (pathname  
without leading directory name) matches "dir" (i.e.: is dir) and  
exclude those from exclusion (include them).

Also, replacing "!dir/" by "!dir" in my test script does not change  
the result. In fact, for "!dir" the result is as expected and  
documented, just for "!dir/" I would expect something else.

So, thanks for trying to help, although reading the manual or  
testing your advice before would be appreciated even more. ;)

Michael

From man gitignore:

If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the purpose of  
the following description, but it would only find a match with a  
directory. In other words, foo/ will match a directory foo and paths  
underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link  
foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general  
in git).

Ahh, the behavior changed in 1.5.5. Pre-1.5.5, if a path ended in a  
slash, it would never match anything.

In any case, the problem is the * pattern. Here's what happens:

At /, the * is evaluated and ignores everything. The !dir/ is  
evaluated and unignores dir. The !b is evaluated and matches nothing.
AT /dir, the * is evaluated and ignores everything. The !dir/ is  
evaluated and matches nothing. The !b is evaluated and unignores b.

So the problem is the * is recursively applying to the subdirectories.  
To fix this, use /* as the pattern.

You're right, that's how it works now. Thanks a bunch! Nothings beats 
"using the s/force/source/".

I find this behaviour highly confusing for someone going by 
"gitgnore(5)". I'll try and submit a documentation fix as a first 
attempt at contributing back.

Michael